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Francophonie

Francophonie, La, officially the International Organization of the Francophonie, Fr. Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), an intergovernmental organization of French-speaking nations that promotes the education and culture of French speakers as well as peace, democracy, human rights, and economic cooperation and development in the French-speaking world. Founded in 1986 at an international conference at Versailles, France, the organization has 53 members (50 nations and the French Community of Belgium, New Brunswick, and Quebec); a number of non-French-speaking nations are among its members. The OIF is headed by a secretary-general (who chairs the OIF's permanent standing committee) and holds (since 1987) biennial meetings of the leaders of its member nations. The organization's bodies include the Intergovernmental Agency, its main agency; several specialized agencies, among them TV5 and Senghor Univ. of Alexandria; and the consultative Parliamentary Assembly.

La Francophonie originated in a number of international organizations of French speakers established after World War II. An international association of francophone journalists was founded in 1950, of national education ministers in 1960, of universities in 1961, and of national legislators in 1967. In 1970, at a conference in Niamey, Niger, the first intergovernmental body of the French-speaking world, the Agency for Cultural and Technical Cooperation (ACCT), was founded. In the 1990s these and other organizations were consolidated under a standing committee (est. 1991), which gave the OIF a more permanent status; ACCT became the Intergovernmental Agency of La Francophonie in 1996. The post of secretary-general was created in 1997, and Boutros Boutros Ghali was the first to serve in the post.

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Licensed from Columbia University Press

Francophonie

La Francophonie is an international organisation of French-speaking countries and governments and, in French, the community of French-speaking peoples. Formally known as the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) or the International Organization of La Francophonie, the organisation comprises fifty-five member states and governments and thirteen observers. The prerequisite for admission is not the degree of French usage in the member countries, but a prevalent presence of French culture and French language in the member country's identity, usually stemming from France's interaction with other nations in its history. Few of the member states are majority French-speaking aside from France and its overseas possessions, and sub-national members. French functions in several other member states as a common language while having little current presence in the other members, being that the links are mainly historical and cultural.

French geographer Onésime Reclus, brother of Élisée Reclus, coined the word Francophonie in 1880 to refer to the community of people and countries using the French language. In addition to referring to the international organisation, Francophonie may also be used to reference the worldwide community of those people whose native language or second language is French (i.e., the French Sprachraum). Francophonie was then coined a second time by Léopold Sédar Senghor, founder of the Négritude movement, in the review Esprit in 1962, who assimilated it to Humanism.

The modern Francophonie was created in 1970. Its motto is égalité, complémentarité, solidarité ("equality, complementarity, and solidarity"), alluding to France's motto. Started as a small club of northern French-speaking countries, it has since evolved into a global organisation whose numerous branches cooperate with its member states in the fields of culture, science, economy, justice, and peace.

Structure

For the official structure, see the flow chart given on the OIF website: http://www.francophonie.org/doc/txt-reference/organigramme_2007.pdf

The Francophonie has an observer status at the UN General Assembly. It has been renamed a few times since its founding:

*20 March 1970: Agency for Cultural and Technical Co-operation (ACCT) (Agence de coopération culturelle et technique).
March 20 is now commemorated by the organization itself as the International Day of the Francophonie (Journée international de la Francophonie), also informally known as "The Celebration of the Francophonie" (la fête de la Francophonie).

*4 December 1995: Intergovernmental Agency of the Francophonie (Agence intergouvernementale de la Francophonie)

*December 1998: International Organisation of the Francophonie (OIF) (Organisation internationale de la Francophonie)

Executive Secretariat (Secretaries-general)

* Boutros Boutros-Ghali (Egypt) : 16 Nov 1997 - 31 Dec 2002

* Abdou Diouf (Senegal) : 1 Jan 2003 - present

Summits

Summits of the Francophonie are held every two years, at which time the leaders of the member states have an opportunity to meet and develop strategies and goals for the organisation.

Past Summits:

Palace of Versailles, Paris, France (17-19 February 1986)
Quebec City, Canada (2-4 September 1987)
Dakar, Senegal (24-26 May 1989)
Chaillot, Paris, France (19-21 November 1991)
Mauritius (16-18 October 1993)
Cotonou, Benin (2-4 December 1995)
Hanoi, Vietnam (14-17 November 1997)
Moncton, Canada (3-5 September 1999)
Beirut, Lebanon (18-20 October 2002)
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (26-27 November 2004)
Bucharest, Romania (28-29 September 2006)

Future summit:

Quebec City, Canada (17-19 October 2008) (part of the 400th anniversary celebration of the founding of Quebec)

Ministerial conferences

Permanent council

The Permanent Council of the Francophonie consists of Ambassadors of the member countries, and, like the ministers' conferences, its main task is to plan future summits and also to supervise the implementation of summit decisions on a day-to-day basis.

Intergovernmental agency

The Intergovernmental Agency of the Francophonie is the main operator of the cultural, scientific, technical, economic and legal cooperation programs decided at the Summits. The Agency's headquarters are in Paris and it has three regional branches in Libreville, Gabon; Lomé, Togo; and Hanoi, Vietnam.

Missions

The Charte de la Francophonie defines the role and missions of the organisation. The current charter was adopted in Antananarivo, on November 23, 2005. The last summit held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso on 26-27 November 2004 saw the adoption of a strategic framework for the period 2004-2014.

French language, cultural and linguistic diversity

The primary mission of the organization is the promotion of the French language as an international language and the promotion of worldwide cultural and linguistic diversity in the era of economic globalisation. In this regard, countries that are members of the Francophonie have contributed largely to the adoption by the UNESCO of the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (October 20, 2005).

Peace, democracy and human rights

Similar to organization such as the Commonwealth of Nations, the Francophonie has as its stated aims the promotion of democracy and human rights. Following the November 3rd 2000 Déclaration de Bamako , the Francophonie has given itself the financial means to attain a number of set objectives in that regard.

In recent years, some participating governments, notably the government of Quebec and Canada, pushed for the adoption of a Charter in order for the organisation to sanction member States that are known to have poor records when it comes to the protection of human rights and the practice of democracy. Such a measure was debated at least twice but was never approved.

Members

The official list of members is available at the Francophonie website

Mauritania's membership was suspended on August 26, 2008, pending democratic elections, after a military coup.

Country	Status	Year joined	Official language	Notes
	member	1999	Albanian	approximately 30% of young Albanians choose French as their first foreign language
	member	2004	Catalan	President of France is co-Prince of Andorra
	member	1970	officially trilingual, French included	French is the native language of about 40% of the population. . Belgium's French community is also a member separately.
* Wallonia-Brussels Community	member	1980	French official language	a community of Belgium with its two components Wallonia (excepting the German speaking Community and Brussels-Capital Region (its French-Speaking majority)
	member	1970	French	former French colony
	member	1993	Bulgarian	French is spoken by 9% as additional language
	member	1970	French	former French colony
	member	1970	French	former Belgian UN-protectorate
	member	1993	Khmer	former French colony
	member	1991	officially bilingual, French included	over 90% of country was a French colony
	member	1970	Officially bilingual, French included	the provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick are participating governments; much of Quebec, Ontario and the Maritimes formed part of former French Colonies (as part of New France and Acadia). As of 2004, a government representative from Ontario also attends as part of the Canadian delegation, although Ontario is not yet a participating government in its own right.
*	participating government	1977	officially bilingual, French included	province of Canada; former French colony Acadia, New France.
*	participating government	1971	French	province of Canada; former French colony Canada, New France.
	member	1996	Portuguese	Former Portuguese colony with many neighboring French-speaking countries.
	member	1973	officially bilingual, French included	former French colony
	member	1970	French	former French colony
	member	1977	officially trilingual, French included	former French colony
	member	1977	French	former Belgian colony
	member	1981	French	former French colony
	member	1970	French	former French colony
	member	1977	officially bilingual, French included	former French colony
	member	1979	English	French and then British colony; Antillean Creole, a French-based creole language, is spoken by 90% of the population.
	member	1983	Arabic	traditional Francophone elite
	member	1989	officially trilingual, French included	Former Spanish colony surrounded by French-speaking countries.
	member	2001	Macedonian
	member	1970	French
	member	1970	French	former French colony
	member	2004	Greek	French is understood and spoken by 8% of the population
	member	1981	French	former French colony
	member	1979	Portuguese	country surrounded by French-speaking countries. Former Portuguese colony
	member	1970	officially bilingual, French included	former French colony
	member	1991	Lao	former French colony
	member	1973	Arabic; French is an administrative language	Under a French mandate from 1920-1943, French language used in schools and universities, and is understood by the majority of the population.
	member	1970	Officially trilingual, French included
	member	1970-1977 1989	officially trilingual, French included	former French colony
	member	1970	French	former French colony
	member	1980	Arabic	former French colony, French is an administrative language
	member	1970	English; French and Creole are recognised regional languages	French, then British colony; French-based Mauritian Creole the lingua franca, French is widely spoken and understood
	member	1996	Romanian
	member	1970	French	former French protectorate
	member	1981	Arabic	former French protectorate; French is commonly used
	member	1970	French	former French colony
	member	1993	Romanian	French is understood and spoken by 24% of the population
	member	1970	officially trilingual, French included	former Belgian UN-protectorate
	member	1981	English	Former French and British colony. Antillean Creole, a French-based creole language, is spoken by 90% of the population.
	member	1999	Portugues	Former Portuguese colony, neighboring French-speaking countries.
	member	1970	French	former French colony
	member	1976	officially trilingual, French included	former French colony (first empire), later British colony, French is commonly used
	member	1996	Officially quadrilingual, French included	French is the native language of about 20% of all Swiss.
	member	1970	French	former French colony
	member	1970	Arabic	former French colony; French is commonly used
	member	1979	officially trilingual	former French and British condominium
	member	1970	Vietnamese	former French colony
	associate member	2006	Greek	French is understood and spoken by 12% of the population; historical ties through the Lusignan rule of the Kingdom of Cyprus during the Middle Ages.
	associate member	2006	English	country surrounded by French-speaking countries

Observers

Year joined	Language	Notes
2004	Armenian	Armenian culture is tied to France via the Franco-Armenian dynasty of the Kingdom of Cilicia during the Middle Ages. See also: Franco-Armenian relations
2004	German	French is spoken by 10% as additional language.
2007	Serbo-Croatian	French is widely studied and understood in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
2004	Croatian	French is understood and spoken by 4% of the population, and the county was the Illyrian Provinces during Napoleonic rule in the 1820s.
2007	Spanish	French is well studied and spoken by upper income elites in addition to a large ethnic French community, the only non-French speaking Latin American observer member.
1999	Czech	French is understood and spoken by 2% of the population.
2004	Georgian	Alike Armenia, the Georgians had a connection with the French kingdoms in the Middle Ages.
2004	Hungarian	French is understood and spoken by 2% of the population.
2007	Italian	Italy is France's neighbor to the east and the two countries had a strong cultural exchange. French is well studied and understood by large numbers of Italians. The Val D'Aosta region has a sizable French-speaking minority.
1999	Lithuanian	French is understood and spoken by 1% of the population, and in World War I the Baltic States was occupied by a French military garrison to protect them from the newly-formed Soviet Union (1918).
2006	Portuguese	former Portuguese colony.
1996	Polish	Poland has historic ties to France; French is understood and spoken by 3% of the population, and many Polish emigrants settled in France in the 20th century.
2006	Serbian	French is taught in one-third of schools.
2002	Slovak	French is spoken by 2% as additional language
1999	Slovenian	French is spoken by 4% as additional language
2006	Ukrainian

The U.S. state of Louisiana (the small French-speaking Cajun minority in Acadiana) is an observant member with some representation in the Francophonie, the state was formerly part of New France from 1680 to 1767 (the brief period of Spanish rule by New Spain, and again from 1800 to 1803 when the United States annexed Louisiana and the reminder known as the Louisiana Purchase.